CWGLive 2018

Nancy Ward facilitates the Nonfiction Critique Workshop at the Catholic Writers
Conference Live in Lancaster, PA, on July 31, 2018. Left to right, Geri Guadagno,
Donna Mitchell, Lisa White, Barbara Lorenzo, Nancy Ward, Virginia Pillars,
Forrest Yanke and Tony Agnesi (Photo provided by Nancy Ward)

If ever there is a place to live in each present moment, it’s the Catholic Writers Conference Live. My adventure this year began with the delightful drive from the airport through rural Pennsylvania with Volunteer Coordinator Barb Szyszkiewicz, Ellen Hrkach and Allison Gingras to the conference center hotel and ended with the train ride back to the airport with Deanna Klingel. Between these travel bookends, I enjoyed hundreds of moments of teaching and learning from my fellow Guildies, serving them and being served by them, discovering for the first time the faces of social media friends and hugging dear writers I have met and befriended at past conferences.

The pre-conference activities always begin with setting up our CWG booth, provided for us by the Catholic Marketing Network (CMN). The CMN Trade Show is fondly known as Disneyland for Catholics because everywhere you look is one more unique book or recording or statue or item of jewelry or clothing. The number of ways we find to express our Catholicism, share it with others and glorify God seem limitless. No wonder the majority of Catholic book and gift shop owners do their annual buying at CMN. And we get to meet and pitch our books to acquisition editors of publishing houses – a beautiful synergy.

The Tuesday luncheon with bookstore owners brought us introductions to a few of those on the other side of publishing our books, the retailers.
Critique Workshops opened the conference on Tuesday afternoon, the Fiction Critique Workshop led by Michelle Buckman and Karina Fabian and my Non-Fiction Critique Workshop. Although I‘ve been facilitating the session for several years, I always get excited about working with new writers, who teach me so much through their talent and commitment. By the end of the two hours, we were close colleagues experienced in the art of giving and receiving critiques as we headed to the historic St. Mary Catholic Church for Mass. (more…)